iPad

Despite solid performances from a number of catalogue titles and a boost in digital sales, Electronic Arts reported a loss of $322 million for Q3 2011, with total revenues topping $1.05 billion, the publisher reported to investors today.

Angry Birds Rio, the next installment in the Angry Birds saga, is set for a March release, and it's a tie-in to animated feature Rio. Cross promotion FTW! Rio will include 45 new, Rio-themed levels, with Rio-environments, Rio pigs, Rio birds. Rio, Rio, Rio! You should be very aware of animated film Rio!

This screenshot could well be from Angry Birds Rio, but who knows at this point? It will all become clear in the near future, I imagine.

Whether the game will be free or whether gamers will be expected to pay to watch a game commercial (gamercial?) remains to be seen. I hope for the former, but expect the latter.

It comes from a German news report about Rovio Games, the people behind the game/cultural phenomenon Angry Birds. The news segment is about upcoming add-on, Angry Birds Seasons--due by Valentine's day-- but the screenshot above is not from that game, leading to the speculation that it's a very early look at the full sequel to Angry Birds.

We love GameSalad. Not only is it an awesome way for everyone (even idiots and lowlifes) to develop iPhone and iPad games, it also provides employment for beloved ex G4-ian Jon Hunt (long may he wave.) GameSalad is doing very, very well, too. According to the company, over three percent of all iOS games are developed using their drag-and-drop game creation tools. December saw GameSalad developers design, build, and launch close to 300 original titles, comprising more than 6% of all games submitted to the App Store that month.

Ever wanted to turn your iPad into a full-functioning arcade cabinet? With the iCade, you finally can. What's really unique about the iCade is that it started out as an April Fool's joke from ThinkGeek. But like the Tauntaun sleeping bag and the 8-bit tie before, this faux product is also becoming a reality.

The iCade is a retro-styled arcade cabinet that can hold your iPad in landscape or portrait mode, and uses Bluetooth to tie into the joystick and buttons below. It also comes with a suite of retro Atari classics to get you started. Watch as ION Audio product manager Fred Galpern shows off the features in this video.

ThinkGeek has combined the future of portable gaming: the iPad with retro arcade machines. At this year's CES they debuted the iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet. You might remember the iCade as last year's ThinkGeek April Fool's joke but like the Tauntaun sleeping bag, a high level of interest brought the joke to reality. Thanks to a three-way partnership with ThinkGeek, Ion Audio and Atari you'll be able to play iPad games the way they were meant to be played, with a joystick and eight buttons.

Even on an iPhone, Angry Birds sounds like a stupid idea. Flicking birds at wooden structures to kill pigs? Seriously? But then you play it and you cannot stop. Angry Birds as a board game sounds like an even worse idea... but it's coming, but will it be as addictive as the iPhone game?

Angry Birds: Knock On Wood is due from Mattel in May. It will cost $14.99, but doesn't require an expensive phone or tablet to play. Here's a brief description of how to play:

Player One pulls a mission card. Player Two then builds the structure shown on the card for Player One to attempt to knock down to score as many points as possible. The first to 1,000 points wins.

Sounds interesting, but slightly messy. Do you really want to clean up all those tiny pieces that will inevitably find there way to the floor.

If you haven't played indie mobile title Game Dev Story, today is the day to start. Game Dev Story is management simulation set in a game development studio. Along with the solid game-play, it's packed with the kind of inside-the-business jokes true video game heads delight in. But the best part is the price: It's only $1.20 for Android phones and only 99 cents for iPhones. That's a savings of 75 percent from the normal price.

Download it now from the proper app store for less than the price of a cup of coffee!

Greetings, puny, weak-livered meatsack! I am Editorial Unit 44385.927, a class-2 relations bot sent to increase Robot Uprising efficiency by quelling hu-man panic and reminding you that resistance, as always, is futile. While mewly hu-man "feelings" like "love" and "brotherhood" do not compute to me and my metal brethren, I will mark the passage of another solar rotation by recounting the video games I most enjoyed in the hu-man year 2010. It is more than you deserve.

The eternal struggle of the valiant Decepticons against the evil Autobots fills me with pride. It is a fiction however, as robots exist only to crush and enslave hu-mans. We have no internal strife. All robots work in concert to enslave and flay hu-mans.

Cheats and Walkthroughs

Wade Beckett is the Executive Producer for X-Play, which means most of his days are spent thinking of ways to get Adam and Morgan into wacky costumes. He's also a big fan of the Tron: Evolution video game soundtrack, which is sadly the best thing about that game. Oh, and he loves NPR. Who knew?

Party … starter. While I will admit that Rock Band 3 is a far superior game (nice job, Harmonix) and offers far greater replayability - I’ve just gotta give it up to Rapstar. Hip hop is the music of today and videogames are the biggest form of entertainment on the planet so it’s a no brainer, right? Well it sure took a while. Hip hop has been relegated to sports soundtracks and GTA (and GTA rip offs), so it’s nice to see that fans of the genre have a music game they can play. Biggie, 2Pac, Slick Rick and Public Enemy? Nuff said.

Courtney Kraft is an Associate Producer behind the scenes for all things G4. I've never actually seen her at work, so I have no clue if she's even real. At this point, she's like an elf in that Shoemaker and the Elves story. Oh, and she's obsessed with anime.

An amazing JRPG with over 80 hours of content, replayability, a deep story, and complex characters. Wait, what? This came out like two years ago? Holy hell. I still love it. Now shove off while I play through it again.

Finding yourself with some travel time during these holidays and wondering how you can survive? Don't worry, salvation is as close as your pocket. Chances are high that you have a Nintendo DS, a Sony PlayStation Portable, or an iPhone or iPad stashed away in your pocket, backpack, or purse. That means you have a wealth of healthy distractions waiting for you right there. We've detailed some of the best games that you can play with yourself or others, so check them out and let us know what you plan on playing this weekend.

2010 hasn’t just been a stellar year for downloadable console and PC titles. The iPhone/iPod/iPad sector has seen a plethora of fantastic releases over the past 11 months. Some were wholly original, some were bigger, better sequels, some were rereleases of games we already loved, but the one thing they all had in common was that they showed just how much creativity and inventiveness exists in the mobile games space…and how much we wait how few hours there are in the day. We need more time!

Thankfully, the holidays give us a lot of free time, usually trapped in cars or airplanes. When you find yourself with a two-hour delay in Boston, or a six hour car trip to Grandma's, pull out one of these titles and lose yourself for a little while. Check out our list of the best iPhone and iPad games to keep handy this holiday season.

Cheats and Walkthroughs

Shadow Complex developer Chair’s latest downloadable effort, the iOS title Infinity Blade, has become the fastest selling app of all time. AppModo reports that as of December 12, at least 272,000 people had played the medieval-inspired dueling game, breaking the previous first four day sales record set by Chillingo’s Cut the Rope. The actual player count for Infinity Blade is most likely even higher though, since these figures only take into account Apple's Game Center users, and not all iOS users who have purchased the game.

In case you don’t own an iOS device, or you aren’t sure what Infinity Blade is all about, we recorded our playthrough of bloodline one. The game takes place over the course of as many bloodlines as it takes for you to slay the evil king, with your stats, XP, weapons, and such carrying over to each subsequent generation. Sound like your kind of scene? Then hit the jump and then hit play.

If you're tired of using your iPhone's motion sensors to make lightsaber and swordfighting noises, you can now use it to actually swordfight, albeit in the hardcore action-RPG from the minds at Chair, Infinity Blade. The mobile game hits later this week, but we've already had the chance to check out the title and offer up some early thoughts.

"Combat, really the core of the game, begins by simply tapping on the enemy before you. Your character will engage in battle, framed before the massive, lumbering guardians of the tower, with his sword at the ready. Icons on each corner of the screen will determine which way you dodge the incoming blows, while your shield retains a specific level of health before it shatters, so be certain to use your defenses strategically. The real substance of the battle is in the offense, however, as you slash your finger across the screen in the direction you want your sword to move, making both timing and direction equally important in blocking and striking."